from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Helium is a fascinating element that most people recognize as the stuff that you can inhale to make your voice sound funny. However, it has some really serious uses in MRI machines and rocket engines -- and if we're not careful, we could waste this precious material and not have any kind of replacement for it. Once we run out of helium on earth, there aren't a lot of great options for obtaining more. It's not like we can just swing by Jupiter and bring some back. Maybe we can recycle and conserve for a bit, and perhaps someday we'll figure out fusion.

The lunar surface could be mined for helium. If mining the moon for helium sounds impractical and crazy, it wouldn't be if we could use a specific isotope of helium for a fusion reactor. Just gotta get fusion technology working....

from the turn-turn-turn dept

High-quality precision engineering enables the creation of remarkable tools and machines, but once in a while it gets applied to something more frivolous, with extremely appealing results. This week, we're looking at a pair of ultimately not-that-useful toys which are nevertheless very cool, thanks to unmatched detail and precision.

This one is sure to make space geeks salivate, though only the hardcore among them will actually part with £300+ to get their hands on one. What makes MOON special? Well, while the non-detail-oriented might think a volleyball makes a sufficient lunar globe, the MOON is there for those who demand more: it's a completely accurate and faithful 3D reproduction of the moon, not based on 2D photos of the surface but on actual topographical data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. You can see — and even touch — every single perfectly-rendered ridge and crater, or just watch as they are cast into shifting relief by the ring of white LEDs that orbits the globe to create stark shadows and highlights and accurately simulate lunar phases. The rotocasted polyurethane resin globe comes in a couple of different sizes but, as mentioned, none of them are cheap.

Spinning tops are one of those funny pieces of simple engineering that most people can't help but find pleasing and intriguing for no immediately obvious reason, and this one might be the top to end all tops. It's huge — 3 inches tall by 2 inches in diameter — and hefty, made from high-quality aluminum with a precisely machined 2mm tip. After hitting full speed with the help of a kevlar pull-string, it's capable of some nifty feats for a spinning top: it can spin upside-down or on your fingertip almost as confidently as the normal way on a flat surface, and its high weight and speed make it function like a gyroscope and do tricks like spinning on its side (seemingly defying gravity) while hanging from the launching string. Essentially, it's an age-old toy made impressive by being engineered like an important machine — and while it's a slightly more accessible purchase than the lunar globe above, it still carries a $65 price tag (and that's just for Kickstarter backers — the intended retail price is over $100).

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Earth's moon is the most well-known planetary satellite because we see it almost every night. But the Earth has a few more natural satellites that aren't technically moons. There are a bunch of near-Earth objects (NEOs) that are in resonance with the Earth around the Sun. Several quasi-satellites and trojans dance around our planet in space -- and these objects could be potential landing sites for probes someday (or for asteroid mining operations). They're just not moons (or dwarf moons or whatever you want to nickname them), but maybe they'll be space stations.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's been decades since a human being has traveled beyond low earth orbit. Last year, NASA tested its human-rated Space Launch System to an altitude of 3,600 miles, but getting people to a "human accessible surface" that isn't part of the earth is going to take some time. China could have a taikonaut on the moon before 2030. NASA can say it's "been there, done that" -- but when will it be able to top a manned lunar landing?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's been a while since Apollo 17. Getting to Mars sounds like a worthy follow-up mission, but just figuring out how to live inside a metal tube for longer than a year outside of low Earth orbit is also a pretty challenging project. NASA hasn't been very focused on going back to the moon recently, but that could change depending on who becomes the next US president. But in the meantime, here are a few other efforts working on missions to get to the moon.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Dwarf planets and other rocky space objects have been in the news recently, thanks to the New Horizons spacecraft flying by Pluto. Rocky space objects much closer to the Earth are getting some attention, too, especially after the Chelyabinsk meteor exploded over Russia in 2013. No one saw that one coming, and a bigger rock would have done a lot more damage. Near-Earth space objects are literally all around us, so check out the links below if you have any instinct for self-preservation interest in naturally-occurring space rocks.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Apollo 11 Moon landing was a pretty big deal in 1969 (and it still is). It's been just 46 years since a human being first set foot on the moon, and it's a bit disappointing that we haven't been back more recently. Fortunately, there are some folks still working on manned space exploration (phew, SpaceX..), so people won't be limited to just visiting the ISS or Tiangong 1. If you're a space enthusiast, check out a few of these links on manned spaceflight stuff.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

If you've caught up on the Techdirt podcasts, you might have heard a brief mention of how Antarctica is split up and a bit of discussion on the possible ownership of the moon. The ownership of new lands will likely become a more important issue as the access to various inhospitable locations increases. Here are just a few links on claiming territories.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The promise of large-scale human expansion into space has been around for a long time, and we've already passed countless fiction-proposed deadlines for such a development. Still, while we're not living in moon cities as many may have predicted, we're constantly taking unprecedented steps outwards. Here are just a few of the latest:

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Plenty of space geeks complain about the seemingly stalled progress in manned space missions, pointing out that plans to go back to the moon (or to Mars or to an asteroid) sound unlikely to happen within a Baby Boomer's lifetime. Sure, there might be some touristy flights to the near edge of space with Virgin Galactic, but really inspiring never-been-done-before space walks on another planet aren't coming any time soon (unless you count some suicide missions). Here are just a few links on the future of space transportation.